PIA Press Release2007/07/17

New governor makes Pangasinan capitol hub of people's transactions

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan (17 July) -- Expect all provincial officials including the governor and members of the sangguniang panlalawigan to hold office at the provincial Capitol building, no longer at the nearby Urduja House or the Finance building.

Gov. Amado T. Espino stressed this point in his message before the sangguniang palalawigan last Monday as he revealed that he himself was holding office at the Capitol since he assumed office instead of doing so at the Urduja House as had been the usual practice of his predecessors.

Urduja, he pointed out, is the official residence of the governor where dignitaries and other official guests will be received and not a place for an office. The building will also serve as a guest house, according to him.

Espino and his family are staying at Urduja House since July 2 when he began his term.

The Urduja House was named after the legendary queen of the early Amazon kingdom believed to have existed in Pangasinan long before the coming of the Spaniards,

The edifice was built by Gov. Juan Rodriguez in 1953 to become his official residence while holding office in the capital, located in Lingayen. Other provincial governors who came after him stayed at the Urduja House.

Board members at present have their offices located at the second floor of the Finance building. The Capitol building presently houses the sanggunian session hall, the office of the vice-governor and the Commission on Audit at the second floor while the treasury, personnel and provincial planning offices are located at the ground floor.

Espino said such offices will be relocated to their proper places. The provincial information office which used to occupy a building at the Urduja premises last week relocated its office to the basement of the Capitol building which used to be occupied by the cooperative store. The latter transferred to the old NFA building.

He said that additional buildings if necessary will be constructed to house offices that would be displaced and could not be accommodated by existing edifices.

The new governor also reiterated his call for Pangasineses to speak the language in order to preserve, propagate and strengthen it. He said that members of his staff who speak other languages like Iloko and Tagalog have begun learning Pangasinan, even joking that they have already bought a Pangasinan dictionary.

He used Pangasinan entirely in that conference with mediamen during the break in his consultation with some office chiefs at the session hall.